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U.S.

Department of Transportation
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Construction Issues
Gery Bauman
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration
Office phone 740-587-0275

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

$$$ Problem $$$


Recently there have been occurrences of through wall cracked
welds discovered during the hydrotest phase of pipeline
construction.
These discoveries are extremely troubling as typically cracked
welds are found and repaired or removed during the non
destructive testing and repair phase of pipeline construction.
Concerns
Are there partially cracked welds that remain?
Long term viability of the pipeline? Fatigue? External
loading?
Ramifications of a failure of a pipeline operating at 72% or
80% SMYS?
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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Houston We Have A Problem

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Applicable facts
No failures in unrepaired mechanized girth welds
Leaks found in repaired mechanized girth welds
Leaks found in manual cellulosic girth welds
Leaks found in repaired manual cellulosic girth welds
A failed manual road bore tie-in weld was found with a cleaning pig just
prior to hydrotest.
Another failure found during hydrotest was due to overstressing the root
bead by movement which caused a crack that was welded over hinging
All of the failures have been found in X-70 or X-80 pipe 20 or greater in
diameter
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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Additional investigations
Problems detected
Cracked repaired mechanized welds
Cracked road bore tie-in welds
Repaired welds with non-crack defects
Smart pigging programs underway

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Applicable facts (cont)


In all cases (except of hinging) metallurgical investigations
concluded hydrogen assisted cracking (HAC) was the failure
mechanism
Construction records associated with the leaks and
additional investigations were reviewed and most of the
time either ultrasonic inspection or radiography were
completed the same day as the weld; no Non Destructive
Testing (NDT) reports indicate cracks - this helps confirm
Delayed HAC. In some cases the NDT was completed on
the following day, here again no NDT reports indicate
cracks. UT was used on the mechanized projects and
radiography was used on the manual welding projects.
Construction records indicate some cracked welds were
found during construction and removed.
Ambient temperature ranged from below 0 to 60 F
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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Applicable facts (cont)


In all of the mechanized weld repair failures cellulosic
electrodes were used for the root and hot pass. Fill and cap
passes varied from cellulosic, low hydrogen, or Flux Cored
Arc Welding (FCAW).
In all of the failed manual welds cellulosic electrodes were
used.
In all procedures preheat was specified and ranged from if
ambient temperature below 50 F use 150 F preheat to a
blanket statement requiring 250 F minimum preheat
Statements about Time Between Passes were varied as
well as Time Between All Other Passes
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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Hydrogen Assisted Cracking (HAC)


To have HAC there must be three things present in the
weld; a source of hydrogen, a micro-structure susceptible
to the effects of hydrogen, and stresses in the weld.
Hydrogen is present in the coating of all E XX10
electrodes.
There are always stresses present in the weld due to
heating and cooling; and the restraint geometry
inherent in a pipeline weld. Higher stress levels can be
present in repair welds, tie-in welds, transition welds,
and welds with poor joint alignment.

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Hydrogen Cracking Relationships


Stress

Hydrogen

Hardness

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Weld hydrogen the story


Hydrogen is present in cellulosic electrodes
Hydrogen is very soluble in molten and hot weld metal
Hydrogen is less soluble in weld metal at room temperature
Hydrogen defuses out of the weld metal as the weld metal
cools
Diffusion is time and temperature dependant
If allowed enough time at temperature the hydrogen will
leave the weld
Trapped hydrogen can cause cracking
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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Cross section of
a HAC Pipeline
Weld

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Repair Weld Cracking Issues

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Cross section of a
HAC Pipeline
Repair Weld

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Microstructure hardness
Historically values greater than 350 HV should be evaluated
for the risk of hydrogen assisted cracking
Investigations have revealed weld hardness values of the
failed welds within the range of 200 to 260 HV.

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Solutions Engineering Controls


Development of welding procedures
that manage the risk of HAC
NDT practices that address risk
Careful construction management

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Main Line Welding


Manual
Cellulosic (E-XX10)

Mechanized
Low hydrogen process

Low hydrogen (E-XX18 or


E-xx45)
Semiautomatic (GMAW or
FCAW)
Combinations

Weld defect repair

Weld defect repair


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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Solutions
In a high strength pipeline weld use low hydrogen welding
process (GMAW FCAW - E XX18 E XX45)
If using cellulosic electrodes - Allow time at temperature to
allow hydrogen to diffuse from the weld (higher preheat
temperatures, preheat maintenance, minimum interpass
temperature, avoid weld interruption)
Minimize installation stresses
Optimize weld metal electrode selection

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Solutions (cont)
Welders must follow welding procedures
Verify welder performance with welding inspection
Employ competent welding inspectors
Preheat verification
Avoid accelerated weld cooling
Delay NDT to allow for the possibility of delayed hydrogen
assisted cracking to be detected
Optimize radiographic procedures for crack detection
Verify NDT technicians knowledge, skills, abilities
Audit the NDT technicians work
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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Welding recommendations
Develop low hydrogen welding procedures
Welding procedures that utilize cellulosic electrodes should
specify adequate preheat and a minimum interpass
temperature.
In lieu of specifying a minimum interpass temperature
careful attention should be undertaken regarding time
between completion of the root bead, the start of the
second bead and the maximum time between the
completion of the second bead and the start of other beads.

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Repair welding recommendations


Develop dedicated repair welding procedures
Minimize the use of cellulosic electrodes or manage risk
Develop specific through wall repair procedures
Develop specific partial wall repair procedures
Consider repair welders skills
Possibly higher preheat temperatures and a minimum
interpass temperatures
Cold weather considerations
Avoid accelerated weld cooling
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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Repair welding recommendations (cont)


Preheat application and measurement
Preheat maintenance (minimum interpass temperature)
Consider the quenching effects of adjacent pipe material
deep short defects
Avoid weld interruption during repairs
Avoid delays between passes
Welder must follow welding procedure
Verify performance with welding inspection
Employ competent welding inspectors
Optimize NDT
12 to 72 hour delay
before specimen bending)

(API 1104 App. B states not less than 24 hr. delay


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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Welding Procedure Development


API 1104 main body - Appendix A - ASME IX - Appendix B
These standards are a List of Rules
Recently Identified Problems
Did not state all required variables
Did not qualify sufficient procedures for project
Failed test coupons
Special issues API 1104 Appendix A (next slide)

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

API 1104 Appendix A


To use Appendix A must have:
Stress analysis
AUT error determination
Written welding procedure with weld testing results
Identified Problems
No stress analysis
No AUT error determination See API Section 11.4.4 & A 5.1
Insufficient Charpy tests or CTOD tests that bust out (20th
edition)
Testing lab issue - CTOD test locations are different in the 20th
edition
Failed bend, nick, or tensile test results
Using the example calculation in Appendix A is not acceptable - 23 -

U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Must Follow Welding Procedures 192.225


195.214
Manual Welding Identified Problems
Using wrong procedure
Speed of travel outside specification
Electrical characteristics outside specifications
Inadequate preheat
Inadequate minimum interpass temperature
Exceeding maximum time between root bead and hot
pass

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Porosity
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Welders were not experienced


with the gas-shielded FCAW
process

Welders had history of repairs


due to porosity defects

Welders thought more gas


would prevent porosity

High gas flow rates cause


turbulent flow from nozzle
contaminating the shielding
gas

Welders must follow the


welding procedure

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Preheat
Heating the weld joint before welding
Temperature of the weld joint immediately before the arc is
struck. (Arc start temperature)
Procedures can state Infrared Thermometer, Contact
Pyrometer, or Temperature Indicating Crayon
Range of preheat values found in the welding procedure
Various heat application methods propane torch, liquid
propane torch, oxyacetylene rosebud, induction

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Temperature Indicating Crayons


The crayon
holder
specifies the
melt
temperature

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Use of Temperature Indicating Crayon

Temperature indicating crayons (Tempilstik) are specially


formulated to change color and melt at a specific
temperature.
On a cold pipe surface upon heating, the mark changes
color and melts at the specific temperature
Used on a hot surface, the crayon only indicates the
temperature is greater than the specified temperature on
the crayon if the crayon melts
Applying the crayon on an area adjacent to a weld joint and
then heating with a propane torch directed on the mark will
give a false temperature indication. In this case, the flame
heats the crayon mark faster than the pipe. The pipe will
not be up to the required temperature.
On a hot surface, the crayon should be used after heating
and two different temperature crayons may be necessary to
determine the preheat is within the welding procedure.

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Contact pyrometers
and infrared
thermometers can be
also used to verify
preheat.
Caution infrared
thermometers are not
accurate on sand
blasted surfaces and
values can change
based on the
emissivity of the weld
area
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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Electrical Characteristics
Values should be
within the ranges
specified on the
welding procedure

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Interpass Temperature
The temperature at a location near the start position of the
welding arc(s) recorded immediately before initiating
consecutive pass or passes. (from API 1104 Appendix A)
Minimum Interpass Temperature lowest temperature
allowed to start welding most times it is the preheat
temperature
Maximum Interpass Temperature highest temperature
allowed to start welding.

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

High Weld Defect Rate


Concerns
Having defects not an issue. Excessive defects can be.
Defect repair, NDT and tracking can be an issue.
Industry experience usually shows
- 2 10% defect rate on mechanized welding
- 2 5% on manual welding
- less than 2% can be an issue - examine NDT are
operators procedures adequate? are radiographic or
ultrasonic procedures adequate? are NDT technician
following procedures? - are the NDT technicians proficient?
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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Causes of High Defect Rate


Equipment issues
Pipe sizing issues
Inexperienced welders
Start up issues
Stacked defects
Allowing contractors to set up equipment while
welding main line pipe
X-ray or AUT falling behind eliminates timely feed
back. Feed back is a valuable tool to improve weld
quality.
Root-Hot pass welding way out front of fill and cap

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Inspection
Large variation in inspector competency
What are the inspectors responsibilities?
Welding inspector must be knowledgeable and
competent
Verify welding procedure is followed
Observe
Document
Report
Correct
Work stoppage
Not fall asleep in the pickup truck

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

During the follow-up inspection process


repaired welds with non-crack defects were
discovered
Defects remained after a failed repair attempt and were not
detected by manual ultrasonic testing (MUT).
Lessons learned
Accurately relay defect location and depth to repair welder
The repair welder should confirm the metal removal depth to
ensure defect removal
Encourage welder to look for defect during arc gouging and/or
grinding process (this helps confirm removal)
Verify MUT technicians knowledge, skills and abilities
Verify actual job performance through recording and auditing
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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Radiography
Image Quality Indicators

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Image Quality Indicators (Penetrameters)


PHMSA recognizes the 20th edition of API 1104. The 20th edition only
allows the use of Wire Type Image Quality Indicators.

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

ASTM Type B Packet


The complete outline of the essential wire must
be visible. Essential wire should not be obscured.

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Radiographic Requirement
Both Parts 192 and 195 require a certain
percentage (based on location or class location)
of welds be nondestructively tested and that a
sample of a welders daily work product must be
nondestructively tested.
If the radiographs image quality indicators are
not acceptable, then there may be insufficient
numbers of radiographs to meet the percentage
and/or daily requirements of the applicable code
or operators construction procedures.
Use of API 1104 Appendix A requires essentially
100% NDT - AUT

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Radiographic Problems Identified


Poor radiograph technique - so bad minimum % could not
be achieved
Poor radiograph developing practices
Fogged Film and/or artifacts
Radiographs too dark or light Density (H&D) out of
operators specification or API specification
Improper or poor radiographic interpretation
Missing one or more segments of the weld radiograph
Segments of radiographs do not overlap
Missing radiographs when compared to weld maps
No repair radiograph
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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Radiographic Problems Identified


Radiographed wrong defect area (multiple repairs) should be
able to match up unrepaired areas of repair radiograph to
original radiograph
Numbering irregularities (Changed numbers with magic marker)
Radiographing same weld twice or multiple times and
changed weld identification numbers
IQI issues essential wire not visible
Poor radiographic technique used on transition welds
especially if there is a large difference in thickness

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Oak Ridge Radiograph Photos


Notice chemical stains and
brown hue API 11.1.1 a free
from fog and other processing
irregularities that could mask
defects

Notice radiograph is too dark


API specifies except for small
localized areas caused by weld
irregularities H&D densities >
1.8 and < 4.0 with overall
ranges > 1.5 and < 4.2
Operators procedures can be more
limiting

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Transition Weld Density - IQI

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

192.231
Protection from
weather.
The welding
operation must be
protected from
weather conditions
that would impair
the quality of the
completed weld.
Wind blowing
shielding gases,
rain quenching
welds, cold pipe
impacts preheat
and minimum
interpass
temperature.

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

192.235 Preparation for welding.


Before beginning any welding, the welding surfaces must be
clean and free of any material that may be detrimental to
the weld, and the pipe or component must be aligned to
provide the most favorable condition for depositing the root
bead. This alignment must be preserved while the root
bead is being deposited.
Movement during root bead welding can overstress
deposited weld metal and cause cracking.
Hydrotest failure attributed to hinging

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Is the pipe moving as the root bead is welded?

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

Arc burns and welder competency


Arc burns are not acceptable on high pressure gas pipelines
and liquid pipelines.
The following slides show that arc burns can happen during
internal back welding.

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

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U.S. Department of Transportation


Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration

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